As in many post-socialist countries, Mongolia's school system, previously based on the ten-year school, has been shifting towards eleven years of education. The official school entrance age was lowered to six starting in 2008. Compulsory education is eight years. The school year begins on 1 September.
Schools in sum centers usually have boarding schools for pupils from the countryside. Many of these sum schools only go to the eighth grade. Pupils who want to complete secondary school have to attend schools in the aimag centers.
In Ulaanbaatar and cities like Erdenet there are private schools, though of mixed quality. Ulaanbaatar also has some foreign-language themed public schools, for example for Russian, Chinese, Turkish, English, and German.
According to the ranking of Mongolia's high schools based on university entrance exam results, nine out of ten schools were private (with tuition), while three were Turkish schools. In Ulaanbaatar, there are several private secondary schools that have instruction in English and Mongolian, and just a few that have English-only instruction.